This year’s Union Budget was criticised by experts over a decline in allocations for welfare schemes in real terms, at a time of post-COVID-19 recovery when welfare spending should have been a priority. Similarly, last year’s Budget too ignored social spending in favour of capital expenditure.
The analysis below, based on Budget papers, shows that the trend of declining central government spending on critical social schemes is not new, having begun when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power in 2014. Since then, central allocations for welfare schemes and sectors that ensure basic rights have declined as a proportion of GDP.
Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 aims to address child malnutrition and hunger. From 2021-22, the Anganwadi programme (ICDS) was merged with POSHAN Abhiyaan and a nutrition scheme for adolescent girls. Even with more components, its allocation went down from 0.13% of GDP in 2014-15 to 0.07% in 2023-24 — almost half of what it was.
